Archive for Senator Al Franken

Senator Elizabeth Warren was in Minnesota last weekend to support Senator Al Franken. She gave a speech at the 2014 Humphrey-Mondale Dinner, and what a speech it was! Below is a video of some excerpts.

It was her first time speaking at a major Democratic Party state dinner, and she proceeded to make mince meat out of Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, the Tea Party and the national GOP.

Elizabeth Warren takes on Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz at the 2014 Minnesota DFL Humphrey-Mondale Dinner, her first state Democratic Party dinner.

Elizabeth Warren:

They voted to repeal Obamacare forty-seven times! Forty-seven times?! I know the Republicans don't have a lot of other ideas to talk about, but wow! Forty-seven times?!?

We get it, guys, you like to repeal things. We got it forty-six votes ago.

This whole thing is mindless. Cruz said there's no point in even looking at a major new proposal or piece of legislation that has been put forward by Democrats. So if a proposal has President Obama's name on it, or Chris Dodd or Barney Frank's name on it, he votes "no." If the proposal actually gets passed into law, Cruz will be there to lead the tea party chant: "Repeal. Repeal. Repeal. Repeal."

I sometimes think that if Ted Cruz had been around for the Declaration of Independence, he would have tried to repeal it, because Jefferson was a Democrat. If he'd been around for the Federalist Papers, he would have tried to toss those out too, because Madison spent too much time talking to Jefferson. And don't even get Ted Cruz started on the Humphrey-Mondale Dinner. As we speak, he's off somewhere strategizing on how to repeal the salad course!

Maybe if Paul Ryan wants to instill a culture of hard work, he should start with Ted Cruz and his fellow Republicans and get them to actually look at our proposals. Who knows? Maybe if they weren't determined to say, "No, no, no," we could build a bridge... and I mean that literally. Maybe we could build some of the things we need to build in this country.

The longtime legislator has a libertarian streak, and backed Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign. He also has bucked party leaders in the past, working with Democrats to override a gas tax veto from then-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and earning support in the past from Minnesota's teachers union.

Franken can take 'em. Per the article, he's doing just fine thankyouverymuch.

Senator Al Franken is up for re-election and Republicans would love to replace him with one of their own. Good luck with that, because it won't be easy. He has solid poll numbers (at about 50 percent) and he's worked hard at his job, avoided the spotlight, and maintained a Very Serious demeanor instead of indulging his former Saturday Night Live wacky, zany side.

Another factor: Minnesota’s state Republican Party, while in better shape than it was a year ago, remains in disarray. The party still has a large level of debt, though it’s slowly paying it off, and Ron Paul backers hijacked the party’s conventions last spring and nominated one of their own over the establishment’s preferred candidate to challenge Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). That candidate, state Sen. Kurt Bills (R), won just 31 percent of the vote.

Michele Bachmann has been mentioned as a possible candidate. You can stop laughing now:

Multiple Republicans warned that a Bachmann campaign could be disastrous for them, since she’s popular with the base but not well liked statewide. The former presidential candidate and Tea Party favorite barely won reelection this year in the state’s most Republican district, and an October poll from the Democratic Public Policy Polling showed her favorability rating statewide at just 33 percent, with 55 holding unfavorable views of her.